Voting: Abdul-Jabbar received votes from all eight panelists and had 58 of a possible 80 points (10 points for No. 1, 9 points for No. 2, etc.).

Panelist quote: "Kareem might have been the most dominant player in professional team sports for several years, and this season was the centerpiece. Yes, Oscar Robertson put the Bucks over the top that year and Bob Dandridge was more than just a complementary player, but Kareem changed everything in just his second season." - Bill Windler

You'd have to be eligible for AARP membership to remember when the Milwaukee Bucks played their inaugural National Basketball Association season in 1968-'69.

Back then, years before ESPN and Fox Sports Net, decades before video went viral on YouTube, you pressed your ear to a transistor radio and the Bucks crackled to life thanks to the unmistakable voice of Eddie Doucette.

And unless your dad took you downtown to see a game at the Arena - the Bradley Center, now itself ancient by NBA standards, had yet to be built - that's how you followed the exploits of the Big Fella.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Taking nothing away from LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, or from Michael Jordan before them, Abdul-Jabbar was in his prime among the most unstoppable forces in basketball history.

A wondrously gifted athlete who stood 7 feet 2 inches, moved like Baryshnikov and honed his skills under the legendary John Wooden at UCLA, Abdul-Jabbar towered over the competition and in many ways changed the landscape of sports in Milwaukee.

In 1970-'71, his second year in the league and the Bucks' third, the Big Fella put the fledgling franchise on his shoulders and carried it all the way to an NBA title. He led the league with a 31.7 scoring average, shot 57.7%, grabbed 16 rebounds per game and won the first of his six most valuable player awards.

Abdul-Jabbar's performance that year was voted the third-greatest single season by a Wisconsin athlete (post-World War II) by a panel of eight state sports experts commissioned by the Journal Sentinel.

"As a player, to play with Kareem. . . let's see, what words do I use?" said Jon McGlocklin, a member of the 1970-'71 team and the Bucks' longtime television analyst. "You had this great, mobile, dominant 7-2 center that shot a hook shot like I shot the jump shot.

"There's probably never been a center with his offensive skills. Wilt (Chamberlain) was the most dominant offensive player ever, but he didn't have Kareem's skills. Kareem was pretty perfect as a professional basketball player."

After the Bucks finished 27-55 in their inaugural season, they won a coin flip with the expansion Phoenix Suns for the right to pick first in the 1969 NBA draft. The prize was Lew Alcindor, who would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Coach Larry Costello built his offense around his 22-year-old center, who averaged 28.8 points and led the Bucks to a 56-26 record - a remarkable 29-game improvement - and into the playoffs.

In April 1970, Milwaukee obtained 10-time all-star guard Oscar Robertson in a trade, a move that instantly gave the Bucks one of the greatest inside-outside duos in NBA history.

With Abdul-Jabbar a virtuoso in the middle, Robertson (19.4 points) directing the show and Bobby Dandridge (18.4), McGlocklin (15.8) and Greg Smith (11.7) playing important roles, the Bucks stormed to a 66-16 record.

"Most of our offense, or a lot of it, was built around Kareem and getting him the ball in effective positions," McGlocklin said. "He was not only a great offensive presence in the post, but he became a very efficient passer and would find his teammates. When the ball went in to him it did not always stay there, so he helped make us an effective team."

In 1970-'71, the Bucks scored at least 100 points in all but six games - their season low was 93 - and shot 50.9% as a team. From Feb. 6 to March 8, they won 20 consecutive games, an NBA record (since broken). Their average margin of victory during that streak was 18 points.

"We ran off a number of teams on back-to-back nights," McGlocklin said.

The Bucks then went 12-2 in the playoffs, winning 10 games by more than 10 points and crushing San Francisco, 136-86, in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. They closed the playoffs with a six-game winning streak, sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in the Finals.

Abdul-Jabbar was named most valuable player of the Finals to go along with his MVP award for the season.

"His skills, there was just no downside," McGlocklin said. "He always knew what we were supposed to do and he was engaged in it. He wasn't outside the lines. He was inside the lines with the rest of us."

Abdul-Jabbar would play four more seasons with the Bucks, averaging a career-high 34.8 points in 1971-'72. But the New York native longed for a return to big-city life and on June 16, 1975, he was granted his wish and was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.

He retired in 1989, at age 42, as the NBA's all-time leading scorer and career leader in minutes played, field goals and field goal attempts.

One of the four or five greatest players in basketball history, Abdul-Jabbar was sensational in 1970-'71, when he led the Bucks to their only NBA title.

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR, 1970-'71

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar put up impressive numbers, leading the NBA in scoring, during the Bucks' championship season of 1970-'71.

About Gary D'Amato

Gary D'Amato covers golf and the Olympic Games and writes about a variety of other sports. He has won numerous writing awards from the Golf Writers Association of America, the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Milwaukee Press Club.